Again

I got the request, "Hey YOU know about guns! Can you recommend the pistol this friend of mine in Ogden should get when she gets her CCW?  She is kinda short.  And she intends purse carry but has a biggish purse."

Yeah...  That question again.  For someone I don't know from Adam's off ox.  And probably never will.  Has she shot before?  Dunno.

I figure you gotta answer this one as patiently as possible.  Give lots of ideas but no specifics.  Don't say "just get a j-frame..."  This question will continue to come up again and again.

But if I don't give specifics she is liable to look for specifics on her own initiative, instead of third hand from me, from the gun store sales drone.  Who will 8 times out of 10 probably say "just get a j-frame..."

So how do you answer this question concisely and efficiently?  It's a complicated and innefficient answer.  The closest I can come up with is, "That's not an easy answer.  Do X, Y, and Z first before plunking down your cash.  Then do N."

I hope her CCW class is done by someone that gives a crap.  Assuming she is totally a n00b and not unduly influenced by the ignorant her instructor is her best hope.  But I do what I can from where I can.

Right now my only response to mystery lady is: "First handgun?  You almost certainly don't want a J-Frame snub nosed double action revolver.   That's all I can tell you."

More Prep

 

About right...

Prep

One point...

Never select a shotgun as your primary anti-zombie firearm. It's great for onesy twosey, but zombies travel in hordes. The reload time is onerous, and the ammo, while effective, is heavy and bulky.

Identify

Identify the pistol in this Germanish photo.

I'm guessing pellet gun, but you never know...

Meme

I got pegged in a meme, and I got nuthin else, so...

"I will write down 5 things that indicate, to me, that a gun owner or shooter maybe is an honest one; I say 'maybe' because I have known some seemingly honest gun owners to tell some really tall tales. Then I will tag 5 other gun owners who are also bloggers and I hope each will play along, each listing, in their blogs, at least 3 things that are indicative a gun owner is an honest one, then sending the challenge of this meme on to 5 other gun owner who are also bloggers."

Hmmm, honest shooter qualities...

1. I CCW this weapon because I like it and freely admit that there might be better stuff out there, even better FOR ME, but I don't care because there are other factors and preferences at work (e.g. Carrying a Beretta Bobcat in .25, or a double action snubbie you hate to shoot at the range because it hurts)
2. You freely admit occasionally, and dwell more frequently on in private, lying in bed staring at the ceiling, those times you violated one of the 4 Rules inadvertently in a minute of stupidity. Stupid stupid stupid, lucky lucky lucky.
3. You can point to guns in your safe that were stupid purchases in hindsight, yet you never get around to liquidating that gun to use the money to get a better gun or ammo or training
4. You regret not taking more training more frequently.  You admit to yourself and others that you should at least practice drawing and dry firing more.  
5. You are scared nigh poop-less that you might really have to use a firearm, legitimately.  The thought of failure and through your failure someone that doesn't need to get shot, gets hurt badly.  And it's all your fault.  And you live a long life afterward to dwell on THAT. 

Now I gotta tag others, so I pick folks that I don't think will even respond.

1. Tam
2. Uncle
3. RobertaX
4. Breda
5. JayG

Discombobulated again

And I got no free ice cream...

Nothing much happening in Maryland on the legislation side wrt pro 2nd Amendment rights.  But I get an email or a tweet or a Facebook update from my reps fervent support of the gay marriage stuff every half hour.  That's great Slick, now work on OTHER civil rights.

Oh AWESOME

This was a THING?!

Oh, wait... replicas. Pff.  Easy Jimmy L.  Don't get yersef all worked up.  Cops DO occasionally shoot folks that point non functioning stuff at them, but it's still pretty rare. 

Love your stuff man.  Since I checked out the Art Frahm stuff back in '02.

RAT PATROL!

In COLOR!

Filmed on location in Spain.

The part of the plucky British commandos raiding behind enemy lines will be played mostly by ruggedly handsome Americans.

The part of the German will be played by a guy with a high school chemistry class safety goggle on his cover.

The part of the sidearms for both sides will be played by Spanish sub-machines guns rather than Tommy Guns or MP40s.  The parts of Tanks will be played by modern stuff.  It is so hard to get ACTUAL Panzer MkIIIs and M3 Lees.  NO one will ever aim a gun except for the M1919.  Of course.  You don't have to aim your garden hose, do you?

And the part of the Script Writer will be played by large group of trained monkeys.

GAH this show was much better in re-runs when I was a kid in 1981. Why did I go ahead and rent the rest of season 1?

A Tyrant

A tyrants makes light of his tyranny.

Hilarious, Mr. TSA.  Just keep following orders you overly officious member of a useless parasitic organization that exists to pay it's public service union members and perform security theater.  Get your laughs where you can.  Nice.

I have zero sympathy for the "woe is me, I'm just following orders, I don't like it, I just have fooled myself into thinking I make the flying public safe" TSA gropers.  I have less sympathies for those that defend and rationalize such action, for they do it in my name.  These are my, and our, public servants doing this to people.

SWAT vs Zombie

Here we see a Russian SWAT officer getting grabbed by a zombie as he attempts to flee.  He is mere moments away from the infectious bit at this point.  Note he has no real weapon of any kind.  He is a goner. 

If he is true to the narrative form he may hide the bite from his comrades only to turn later and then infect all of them.

Or, there are many more zombie off camera and he will be swarmed and devoured 3 minutes after this picture was taken.

Note the architecture in the background.  Say what you will about Soviet era concrete blocky buildings, there are easier to blockade against hordes.  Maybe Lenin was onto something... 

Positve

A positive blurb by Nancy French in the Metrocon fortnightly periodical of record.

Crime

Crime surges in the District of Columbia!  Armed robberies up.

I bet Emily will get blamed for this...  After all, guns cause crime, and her's is new in town.  Probably brought a lot of crime in with it from the Sig factory.

Well...

Well they unblocked blogspot and untightened the throttling of the internet at work.  I guess higher up bosses were a bit bored or had their own blogs to follow.  Good good.

Been feeling under the weather.  I thought is was just sympathy symptoms for Paltrow, but a bad case of Grippe or Krupe or summat was going around the office.

If it was the Contagion movie virus, I'd be dead now.  But I ain't dead.  Put your shovels back in the shed.

It made me miss out on Range Day, tho.  Dang.

Did my taxes.  I have my withholdings dialed in so that I only get back $580.  While it's nice to get a $3000 tax refund, I'd rather hold onto most of my money than let the gummint do it for me.  Of course I have to get back SOME refund.  It would rankle to have to write a check even for $4.  Anyway, not a lot there for Buy A Gun day, is it?  I should buy a stripped receiver.  Just to have it.  Easy to stash.  THAT would fit in my gunsafe, certainly.

Running on blog fumes otherwise.

Zombies! RUN!

I can't play this.  I haven't advanced, technologically, beyond about 1985.

Apparently, your smart phone will yell at you that there are undead behind you, so scoot!  And it's NPR, so if the game was, "Turn, and place a 9mm in its melon," they wouldn't have reviewed it.

Plus, I ran my ass off for 7 years and hated every damn minute of it.

Oh Golly!

A whole hour of British people and French resistance types from back when those countries weren't afraid of butt-kickery.

1911s

I like how it is STILL argued by millions as the best handgun option available, bar none. Despite the design being nearly unchanged in a century.

"My Model T is the best car you can drive."  Nope, no one falls for that one. (Love to have one because they are neat, but I wouldn't use it for transportation)

"You use a computer word processor?  Pff.  I'll just stick with my Underwood N. 5, thank you."  Lovely, but suboptimal. (though I love playing with manuals my own self.)

"My Thor get's my clothes cleaner than any Maytag made in the past 20 years could."  Naw, and mind the ringer.  Don't get caught in it.

Sure the arguments and preference for something OTHER than a 1911 are perfectly valid.  That doesn't change the fact it is still a go to item for lots and lots of folks.

Plus the whole "Killed a lotta Nazis and Commies."

My XO 20 years ago even got one with his 1911 20 years previous to that.   VC got him in the trigger guard and creased his temple with an AK AFTER said VC had an extra .45 inch hole in the head region, too.  The Colonel (Lieutenant. at the time) woke in the hospital with the frame still 'attached' to his hand.  They were going to worry about that later, after the head wound stabilized a bit.

Never met a Veteran that potted a Nazi with a Colt .45.  Dang.  Probably won't at this point.  I met a Dutch resistance guy that shoved a Nazi into an icy canal walking home from a prostitute.  HE got the Germans pistol before the splash.

Umbrella Corp

Spotted on Zombie Hunters.  An Umbrella Corporation Lower.

Hopefully will be available, soon, commercially.

DA, wayback machine

FBI training film for the Air Force, circa 1960.



Some old skool fundamentals for those of us that still own them and carry them.

And by old skool I mean, 'not used much anymore'.  Look, one handed shooting Ma!  And the old "pop a squat" stance, too.  Point shooting!  Good times.  Still, lots of bad guys got dead with that method back in olden times.

They do start out with Rule #2 (never point it anything you don't want to destroy).  At least that is a good start

Neat.  A "crack the whip" method of drawing from the holster.  At 4:03.  Don't like that at all...  Bad retention. 

Interesting.  They raise the revolver up to eye/shoulder level and then STILL don't use the sights.  9:15

Good!  Encouragement for dry fire training.  11:50

Oh and I can't let this one go without sharing.  Check out that opening scene.   Groovy.

Walking Dead...

KILLED the zombie meme.  I refuse to watch.  Dead to me.

I actually dread WWZ because Walking Dead stuck a stake into the heart of the genre.  To mix a metaphor.  George Romero is spinning in his grave.  And he's not even dead yet.

Zombie shows have joined the Choir Invisible.  They are pushing up daisies.  Bought the farm with the barn full of undead loved ones.  It's gone shaved-gymrat-deputy-mantits up.  Pining for the Georgia quarry fjords.  They've bleeding demised.  They have gone to meet its maker.  They've passed on.  The joke has ceased to be.  It is no more.

It is an EX-meme.

Contagion

Saw the movie Contagion.

A virus originates in China.  Though that detail doesn't really matter.  It is quick and easily contagious and breaks free of any possibility of containment.  No treatment is available initially.  Mortality is similar to the Spanish Flu pandemic of 90 some years ago, or worse.  Millions and millions die.

People then act like, you know, people at all levels.  Civil order almost completely breaks down.  Some act nobly and heroically.   Many act like scared violent animals.  Some lie on the internet and get millions extra killed.  Some do their best and try to keep their head down and just get through this, hoping things will get back to normal in a year or so.  When gummint folks make an error they are probably not motivate by evil, and probably not greed either.  Chance are they are merely incompetent or make a mistake.  People do that.   

The movie made me want to buy more MREs and such.

It was ok as a piece of entertainment.  Nothing to write home about performance-wise.  Better as a lesson of possibility. 

Dont's:

1. Don't arm yourself with you first gun after the rioters and looters have slaughtered your neighbor, necessitating YOU to search the homes of other empty homes for that left behind side by side.
2. When you go shopping for groceries and the looting has been going on for at least an hour, don't press on hoping that maybe YOUR grocery store is fine and working as normal. 
3. Don't fail to have a years worth of food on hand.
4. Don't trust your hot blonde wife named Gwyneth Paltrow NOT to sleep around on you.  She does it in a plurality of her movies.  THINK, man.
5. Stop touching your face.  That's how you get germs.

VD

 Happy Saint Valemtimes Day!

(My WWII vet neighbor, Archie, tells me stories about pro-kits all the time.)

"I musta gotten it on a terlet seat, Doc..."

Prepper ala Doomsday.

I wonder if that new Doomsday Preppers show will be any good?





Hmph.

"If maurading bands come, I'll show them what great food I have....  Otherwise I'll poison them or cut their throats in their sleep."

You think it will work like that, Chauncey? I don't even want to know what neighborhood you live in because it would hollow out before I got out my door.

Like work folks that assume in a Black Swan even they'll just go to Walmart and loot it of ammo and such like they will be the first to think of such a notion.



"We have weapons for every individual in the house"

Pff.  I got a 3 gun system for a small fireteam.  MBtGE can equip a squad.

"700 cans..."

Good on you! That's the spirit.

"We're buggin out!"

Great, voluntary refugees... I should give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe a train of Benzene piled up 5 miles away. Or a wall of lava is coming toward them from the local volcano. And there is big problems everywhere else too when this happens.

Abraham Lincoln

Early MHI member, clearly



They could have portrayed the Washington Monument accurately. But that may be from 'now' time in the movie.

They got the beanpole and cornstalk railroad bridge kinda nice, if exaggerated...

See Athens?

See what's happening in Greece?  That should be a warning to us, big as brass.  "Do not emulate the fiscal crap Europe does"

Easy-peasy

We need our own PSA

We need an education campaign.  A gunnie PSA.  That would be a valuable use of NRA dues dollars. 

Our opponents, 2 decades ago, successfully conflated semi-automatic firearm, and MACHINE GUN DEALING DEATH IN THE DAYCARE!  Now, the general public is still cruising on auto-pilot, automatically assuming the simple semi-auto is a true automatic whenever the term is mentioned on the newsradio they listen to whilst driving their auto.

A nice friendly commercial.  "Officer Friendly has one.  He carries it on his hip everywhere to protect you from bad guys.  Grandpa carried one in the war.  No not the grandpa that fought on those god forsaken islands.  The grandpa that ran the PX for the Army Supply division in Hackensack New Jersey.  Magnum PI had one.  And most everyone that ones 3 guns has one.  The nice lady next to you in the grocery store in a Carry-Friendly state?  She probably has one, too.  It's the semi-automatic.  Also known as a 'pistol' or 'rifle'.  It is not a machinegun. A pistol 100 years ago was a revolver.  Wonderful old school guns.  The 20th Century pistol is the Semi-Automatic."

Blocked!

My work is now blocking mine and 90% of other gun blogs.  Marking it as "Adult/Mature Content".  One of the few blogs still up is Hell In A Handbasket, and, ironically, it is the one most likely to have some girlie pics hosted on occasion.

What does this mean?  I do a lot of my blog 'thinkin' at work.  With my inspiration ganked there will be less thinkin.  This move may actually kill this blog.  We shall see.  And I won't fade and go away like Breda did.  I'll leave ANGRY!!

Dream

Ugh!  Another crappy dream post.  Everyone looooooooves those...

In this one, MBtGE and I were hunting pigs for pest abatement on a relative of his' farm.  The piglets were easy.  The relative got them with a .22.  MBtGE and I were armed with unloaded shotguns and had to deal with an angry LARGE sow at close range in the woods.  I was thinking that this is REALLY dangerous.  We had a limited supply of double ought buck and slugs.  I was picturing, in the dream, what would happen if the buckshot didn't get to anything vital in the pig and just served to enrage it.  I was wondering if I should load buck/slug/buck/slug/buck in the Model 11.  Was not a happy stress-free gun dream.

"We both support the Second Amendment"

Stop. Yay! Nice of you to admit.



Good news that you claim to be 'for' it! Throw up some reforms in the gun laws first to prove you are earnest. There are plenty of 2nd Amendment violations out there. I must apologise because I was under the impression you were for the banning of firearms for the law abiding. The repeal of ban on classes of weapons would be a start. That and carry restrictions by the whims of bureacrats and where we good guys can tote them. Get those reforms passed and nailed down to make up for all the heinous anti-human-rights regs passed in the past 100 years. Then let's talk about your concerns.

No? C'mon yer honors...

747s at 30,000 feet

Legal loophole permits weapons powerful enough to down aircraft to be sold without checks!!!!!1!!1!!!1!eleven

No, silly MSM.  A bolt action .50 caliber rifle is not the same as a Quad 50 Meat Chopper/Krautmower.

Am I supposed to mount 8 of these private-sale .50s in the wing root of one of my P-51 Mustangs I keep in the garage and go all interceptor on a Delta flight?

Via Metrocon Mag

I watch National Review, so you don't have to.

From Senator Cornyn

An attempted distillation of Fast and Furious.  Good.  Get the word out, all the time.  Until the whole country listens.

A friend keepa saying to me that Fast and Furious is just the Bush era Wide Receiver program.  No.  It's not.

Wide Receiver was:

1. Sell guns to straw purchaser that may be heading to Mexico
2. Trace those guns
3. Arrest the person they go to as well as the purchaser

It failed because the tracing effort was flawed.

Fast and Furious, in the kindest light, was:

1. Sell guns to straw purchaser that may be heading to Mexico
2. ???
3. When they get to the cartels, bust the cartel Bigs

With no idea what #2 would be.  But thiis true scenario?  It really isn't in reality something that should be viewed the kindest light.  I don't think it's truly that.  [The worst light: "Obama and Holder hate Mexicans and want to get as many killed as possible and shipping arms to murderers is one way to achieve this" is also not reality.] It is an effort to pump up the numbers of traceable guns that get to Mexico spurring an argument to instate gun bans in this country.  It failed at that goal, but hundreds of people were still murdered.  #2 is "observe in the Obama controlled media criminal outrages against a lot of Mexicans and others" and #3 was "ban guns in this country to keep people from exercising their civil rights." [though they don't consider is a civil right, despite what the Courts and Constitution explicitly say]  Why this isn't a bigger scandal is beyond me.  There is a war south of our border that we as a nation are ignoring, and officials here are also fanning the flames of that war to promote policies designed to control uninvolved, innocent, rights loving citizens domestically.

Stop it.

Just because you are stonewalling now when you hand got caught in the cookie jar doesn't mean you get to retrench and pursue other means at suppressing our civil rights.

THIS is why voting and insisting that government representatives have less sway in our day to day lives is important.  For guns, for what we eat, for what we do... leave us alone, dammit, and ratcheting up the pressure is just going to continue to ratchet up the the push back.

Or is should.  Ratchet up the push back.  Or all will be lost for us.  Us, We the People.

Glad the Metros give this sort of thing a forum, sometimes.

Rust

Not a problem with me and my appropriate carry weapons.  Pocket carry is a stainless 640 snubbie.  IWB possibles is the aluminum and stainless P229 and a stainless Colt Commander.

About the only place I have possible rust issues is if I OC the parkerized Springfield full sized 1911 (oiled), and even there the finish should help a bit.  If I worried, the Colt can go in that paddle holster.  Even then I'd worry about the leather on rainy days.

I know it is semi-sacrilege  to favor stainless.  John Moses Browning (pbuh) never designed a stainless gun.  I don't know if he might have if he had been working in the 1980s when brushed stainless became more of a 'thing' in firearms fashion.  It's certainly not traditional.  And I gravitate, normally, to the traditional.

I just have liked the look.  Probably from what gun mags I was exposed to and absorbed as a kid forming my opinion, partly.    And I know from experience that stainless steel does indeed rust, some grades more than others.  There are other metallurgical issues, but they rear most of their ugly heads during production and manufacturing.

But there you have it.  My preferences inadvertently solve a problem for me.  Good.

[also:  3-in-1 oil was good enough for the Marines at Belleau Wood, it's good enough for me!]

It's a real guy

Remember this ad?

The poster has outed himself.

Oops

"There is blood all over me," and now I am infected with the zombie virus and some smarter dude with a rifle is going to have to end my final suffering. 

Go hand to hand only in extreme circumstances, friends.

No Sling Points? What Now?

One of the bad things about a Model 11 shotgun is there is no sling on it.  Boo!  Its one of the only things I dislike about it.  Getting it into a tree stand is a dog's breakfast at best, with paracord tied pull ups from the ground.

I don't like that.  There is an alternative that I do kinda like. H/T Uncle.

With this I can walk to a stand in the dark and have my extra stuff there in the pack part.  Of course, I'd not have a shell in the chamber.  Extra stuff?  Like the cleaning gear, and extra warm clothes and an energy bar.  Just need the camel back reservoir to be insulated so I can bring coffee.  With a headband mounted light my hands would be free to do anything.

I don't see the problem

...with the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad.  The same ad could have been used in 1979 with someone like Bob Dole as the nominee and you'd want Dole to come in in the 'second half.'  It'd be nice o have a Reagan, but anything would be better.

I'm still not voting for Mitt, but Mussolini's corpse would be better than what is there now.  Even Bob Dole.  To me, it is a neutral ad lamenting the sorry situation we are going to get ourselves out of in November.

Indy

In JMB's hallmark year, 1911.



This made me think of Farmer Frank. Love me some old skool open-wheel. I'd watch more if they reverted to 1960 era race car designs. Why not, they still race horses, and that technology is 1500 years old.

Today at National Review

VerBruggen takes Bloomberg, and his histrionics, to task.  Halfway decent takedown

My quibbles with the metrocon? 

" a fair number of crime guns seem to come from private sources, and it’s not unreasonable to ask someone who wants to transfer a gun to drive to a licensed dealer first."

Sheesh.  For Crom's sake, we can't have anything not be under the purview of the gummint's watchful eye.  Especially when it's irrelevant and the sub 2% range.  A fair number come from private sources when it comes to "stolen from family members" and "bought from a fence."  Something banning private sales will obviously not fix. 

The commenters tear into this ostensibly gun-friendly upper-crust city-folk (or at least that is the impression he is trying to cultivate for himself with this.) 

Rifle Range

I had no idea this place existed.  It's a rifle range near Frederick MD.  Cresap.  As close as the OTHER Maryland rifle range near me.

Most definitely need to check it out. 

History-gasm

Oh my!

Thanks to DirtCrasher I have been enlightened to a wonderful website full of vintage historical pictures.  Love this kind of stuff.

Zombies Hate...

Thanks to artist Murray Perahia

and also to librarians everywhere.

Five Fantasy Guns

I really can't think of a set to add onto this meme.  No out of reach gun really burns a hole in my 'wants-it' gene that I'd get if hit the Powerball.  I guess, like many, I'd scratch that full auto itch.  Typical things like:

1. Ma Duece, naturally
2. BAR
3. MP40 which is a sweet little shooter.
4. Stoner 63
5. M3 Greasegun just like my old neighbor loves
6. KRISS with a short barrel and screw-on suppressor

Ooops, that's six.

If I was thinking old school, any of these 3 revolvers... Colt Peacemaker, Remington New Model, S&W Schofield, IN those conditions:



And that's nine.

But none of those are the One gun.  If I won Powerball it might not be any of those.  I'm just not excited much.  I'd rather spend it the pistol range in my basement and the rifle range in my front yard on my stately and palatial estate.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays!

-

How Come...

How come...

When a gun control law passes or a court ruling goes against the 2nd Amendment, enforcement of that ruling goes off on time without a hitch.

But when a court ruling goes against the forces of evil, like DC and CHI, and expands freedom, they get away with dragging their feet and stall and don't comply with said ruling?

If a gun confiscation law came off at midnight, the cops would be coming the streets and knocking on doors before breakfast.

If Maryland changed it's law to "you can buy magazines bigger than 20 rounds now, it's ok" I picture that it'd be weeks before stores would dare sell them and they'd be unjustifiable harassed by pols if they tried.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays!

-

Range with a new toy

Went to the range last Tuesday.  And I brought something new.  Something that looks like this.

My brother gave it to me as a gift.  Laser!!!

Let me give the sample target before I go into the grips.  On the left is the Commander, on the right the Snubbie.

Typical 1911 performance for me lately.  I shoot better when I can see the holes, as the shoot n' see shows.  Trying to get the squeeze good. 

The two revolver targets are not too good.  And I blame the laser.  Sorry Crimson Trace.  Part of that issue is me, to be fair.  The geometry is different, so figuring out where to put the thumb is awkward at first.  But for a lefty, right on top of the laser is just fine.  The support hand wants to block the beam.  The activation button didn't work for me half the time because of my grip (it wasn't broken, no.) And concentrating on the red dot and on the sights... well... all these things were distracting and my shots, never great normally, suffered.  I'm not giving up on it yet.  I want to put it through a few more range sessions and see if it grows on me.

That's the bad.

The good is...  The geometry of the grip is similar to the geometry of VZGrips I normally use, so that was nice.  Point shooting with a laser is SPOT on.  It's nice to hold the pistol at waist level, place the red dot on the target, then a hole appears where that light was.  You can concentrate on holding the gun, and dot, still that way, and the sights aren't there distracting you.  If you can rely on your grip lighting it up, and the laser not failing, using that kind of sighting system in defense situations might be hunky dory.  Finally, I find that the Crimson Trace grips really shine not at a range with live fire, but when practicing dry fire at home.  THEN you can see where the trigger is pushing you off center, and the click give you a better 'call' on where the hole would be based on the beam, and you can concentrate on making the wobble less without the distraction of a BANG!

Presuming my range performance with these things doesn't improve, are the the laser grips worth keeping, for me, considering the cost, time, and trouble of just using them for dry fire only?  I would say yes, definitely.  I'm not going to set up all my pistols with lasers now, certainly.  But I am glad I have this set.